Physics Engine
The physics engine has come under a lot of fire on the forums
but in my opinion it is very good. NoCharlie is very impressed
with it and I would be inclined to bow to his expertise in this
area. Certainly changes in setup demonstrate expected changes
in performance and telemetry. If this wasn't the case NoCharlie
would not have been unable to write his excellent telemetry
guides. Some of the spins are "canned" which is a bit of a shame
but it doesn't detract too much from the overall experience.
Damage Model
The damage model is on a par with the sound, ie pretty poor,
it has been improved by the patch but still leaves a lot to
be desired. You can still crash into a wall or car at fairly
high speeds and come away unscathed.
It is possible for faults to develop during the race such as
an engine failure or suspension failure. These are determined
by a probability based on the team so a Minardi will have more
failures than a McLaren, unfortunately these failures are predetermined
at the start of the race rather than being entirely random or
caused by the way the car is treated.
Another problem with the damage model is that it is not possible
for other cars to suffer collateral damage ie when a wheel goes
flying across the track other cars can drive right through that
wheel as if it weren't there. The ability for cars to be damaged
by debris on the track would have been a welcome addition. It
would also be nice if cars would leave oil on the track when
their engine blows.
My other pet hate about the damage model is the ability of the
pit crew to fix the unfixable. In a real Formula 1 race if you
lose a wheel your race is over whether you make it to the pits
or not. Not so in GP3, your pit crew will fit a wheel, brake
assembly, hub, wishbones, new wing, 4 new tyres and a tank of
fuel in about 25 seconds. If you think that's good they can
give you a whole new engine, a set of tires and a refuel in
under 10 seconds.
Artificial Intelligence
I was really impressed with the AI in GP3. The cars appear to
behave like the real drivers in many areas, they will overtake
aggressively in some cases or sit back and wait for you to make
a mistake in others. It's great to see the AI push too far and
spin off in front of you. I was also very impressed watching
a race from the external views to see Schuey using the wet line
to keep his tires cool while other drivers were taking the dry
line.
The AI isn't perfect though, they can smack into you from time
to time and they are unable to reverse from an accident. They
also have an annoying habit of sitting at the side of the track
waiting for all the other cars to pass after a spin rather than
getting back onto the track at the earliest opportunity. All
in all though the AI is probably the best so far in an F1 game.
Gameplay
All the tracks teams and drivers (with the exception of Villeneuve)
from the 1998 season are included. The tracks are pretty accurate
on the whole as is the driver and team performance. There are
a wealth of Race options including Quick Race, Single Race,
Practice and Full Champion season. You can set the race to the
full distance (roughly 2 hours per race + practice and Qualifying)
or a percentage of the full distance to suit your time and stamina.
Damage can be turned on or off and there are several driving
aids and difficulty levels to suit the beginner to expert alike.
Many people have complained that GP3 is too easy, I would be
inclined to disagree. Certainly if you are an old hand at GP2
you are going to find the transition to GP3 fairly easy. If
you are fairly new to the genre though you would find it fairly
difficult on Ace level with no driving aids. This is where the
aids come in handy as they can be individually turned off as
your skill improves easing the learning curve considerably.
The gameplay is where GP3 really wins out over all of the failings
mentioned in other areas of this review. It's really a great
feeling when you've done a few practice laps, checked the multitude
of telemetry graphs and adjusted your car with the extensive
set-up options. Now you are ready to put your car to the test
against the 21 other cars on the track. Setting the car up is
almost a game in itself; NoCharlie spends more time tweaking
the set-up of cars than he does racing them.
Another great thing about GP3 is its customizability. Virtually
every area can and has been customized by the GP3 community.
So you don't like the 1998 season? No problem, download one
of the excellent 2000 season sets from the net. These include
tracks, Drivers, performance levels Carshapes and liveries,
pit crews, in fact everything you need to update GP3 to the
current season. There are also files for the 1999 and 2001 seasons
and many more.
The race itself is a lot of fun, the feeling of being there
is very good and the adrenaline certainly flows. There are several
things to take into account ie weather, pit stop strategy, tyre
wear and staying on the black stuff. I have found myself sweating
on more than one occasion by the end of the race. GP3 certainly
captures the spirit of Formula 1 driving.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer aspect was pretty poor in my tests, I was unable
to get a workable game together via lan or Internet. I found
that over the lan the framerate dropped to unplayable levels
Between a PIII 850 and PII 450.
The hotseat mode where 2 (or more) players take turns on a single
computer worked very well and was a lot of fun. It was a little
frustrating from time to time when the AI crashed one of the
players cars during another players turn but on the whole this
mode worked well.
Conclusion
GP3 is by no means perfect but the good definitely outweighs
the bad. In my opinion there is not a better Formula 1 game
around at least not based on the modern era. If you put the
time into GP3 you will be rewarded with hours of enjoyment.
If you are a die-hard Formula 1 fan then this should definitely
be in your collection.
Mark "Frugal" Bush
Test System specs
Celeron II 566 @ 850mhz
Abit VH6 Motherboard
192MB PC133 Ram
SBLive Sound Card
Maxtor 60 GB UDMA HD
TM Ferrari Force Feedback Wheel
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